How Did The F-16 Fighting Falcon Serve In US Military Operations?

Yes, dear readers, yet another F-16 Fighting Falcon (AKA the “Viper”) article. That goshdarn ubiquitous warbird just can’t stop hogging the spotlight. Although the title of this article limits me to writing about the F-16 in US military operations, I hasten to point out (like I did in a couple of previous articles) for the sake of historical Big Picture accuracy and completeness, that the Israeli Air Force was actually the first entity to use the F-16 in combat, doing so in 1981, with the raid of the Saddam Hussein’s Osirak nuclear facility in Iraq. \